Leland G. Bardsley
Leland G. Bardsley was a character in Mafia III. An anthropology teacher at the Prettyboy College, Professor Bardsley was best known for his polite demeanor, his luxurious hair, and his complete refusal to believe in ghosts. In short, he is a very fascinating character. Backstory Complicated. By his own admission, he found out in high school that he was a sociopath, and was never the same ever since. Main RP Professor Bardsley is a calm and collected college professor, who is dedicated to catching the mafia that plagues the town. He tries to set up an investigation team, makes an archnemesis, and feverishly denies the existence of ghosts. And then he's outed as mafia and killed, and that all changes. As a ghost, he openly admits to being a sociopath, cheerfully watching the chaos that befalls Aifam Cove as the most fascinating anthropological study he's ever witnessed. He meets his one true murderous love, Diana Pallada, and together they wreak havoc. During the game, Professor Bardsley became the second Chemist, after Anna Dywight mistakenly trusted him with the revival potion. Though he didn't have the chance to use the original potion, Professor Bardsley was able to create a modified revival potion, with the forced help of Prettyboy student Cassidy Jackson, that allowed him to revive himself and his fallen mafia comrades at the end of the game. Other Fics Professor Bardsley appears in a few canon side stories. In chronological order: * Carol Bride - A young woman named Carol Bride asks a teenaged Bardsley if he'd like to go to the prom with her. This will definitely end well! * Escape - Bardsley runs into Lindsey Lukas one night and they decide to form a mafia together. * The Mafia Chemist - Professor Bardsley receives a vial of mysterious liquid from Anna Dywight. This will DEFINITELY end well. * Not Anymore - Bardsley's death, rewritten from Bardsley's POV. * What is Love - Professor Bardsley agonizes over the unusual feelings he has for Diana Pallada. Can a sociopath really fall in love? * Therapy - While trying to find Hermia Smith, Professor Bardsley has a run-in with her therapist, Dr. Berger Archambault, causing him to act uncharacteristically nervous. * Six Months - Diana Pallada decides to celebrate the six month anniversary of her and Leland meeting. * Heart and Soul - When Professor Bardsley decides to research what exactly can harm ghosts, he enlists Diana's help and tracks down one Liliana Parker for experimentation. Personality Professor Bardsley is best known for always presenting the image of a perfectly composed gentleman, rather eerily so. Generally acts pleasant and friendly, even when being intimidating—though in such cases, his demeanor will invariably take on a sinister undertone. Beneath his pleasant demeanor, he tends to be fairly quiet, preferring to keep to himself. He usually doesn't emote strongly, but if you manage to get him truly angry, he will fly into a fit of unhampered rage. Relationships Diana Pallada Professor Bardsley first heard of Diana Pallada by reading one of her books—the one she published postmortem from Mafia II—which he'd stumbled upon after his death while doing research on ghosts. So when he met her in person the next day, he recognized her name and commended her for her work. They bonded instantly, mutually fascinated to find a fellow sociopath. As time went on, Bardsley found himself attached to Dr. Pallada on a personal level, in that she was quick to side with him and tell him exactly what he wanted to hear. Though Bardsley was slow to accept it, believing himself incapable of such an emotion, he eventually admitted that he was in love with her, and has been dating Diana ever since. Carol Bride Ex-girlfriend. More info coming someday! Lindsey Lukas Professor Bardsley and Lindsey were the first members of the Chill of the Night, having met one night and deciding to form the mafia as a way to vent their respective frustrations. Professor Bardsley became fond of Lindsey, as the first person he ever revealed his secret to and who treated him kindly in spite of it. Ultimately, he came to consider her as the first actual friend he's ever had. Alma Mathers-Fitzgibbon Bardsley found Mrs. Fitzgibbon to be quite curious, seeing as she joined the mafia despite her obvious reluctance. He often chooses to keep a close eye on her, both to keep her in line and out of curiosity about her behavior. Hermia Smith Professor Bardsley never had a particularly warm relationship Hermia, and was in fact the first to suspect her of being a double agent. Over time, they came to despise each other—though unlike some of his other associates, Bardsley isn't actively hostile toward Hermia, preferring instead to simply avoid her. Nathan Lukas Of all the former members of Abominable Aifam, Bardsley gets along best with Nathan—though perhaps that isn't all that surprising, given that the others actively annoy him. Nonetheless, with Bardsley being a regular at the Starlight Teahouse, he was already on good terms with Nathan by the time their mafias merged. Plus with Bardsley being friends with Nathan's twin sister, he was happy to accept Nathan as a fellow mafioso. Travis Richem Before the events of Mafia III, Professor Bardsley left Travis to his own devices, finding the man's antics to be somewhat baffling, but generally amusing. Over the course of the roleplay though, he starts finding Travis to be more and more annoying. By the time their mafias had merged and they were working together, Bardsley completely despised Travis, considering him an idiot and a nuisance. Piper Boudreaux As Bardsley was the one to kill Piper, it comes as no surprise that Piper despises him. And since she goes out of her way to harass him, Professor Bardsley despises her right back, thus perpetuating a neverending cycle of resentment. Cassidy Jackson Professor Bardsley had nothing more than a professional teacher-student relationship with Cassidy while he was her teacher, though he did consider her to be a decent student. However, that all changed after he was outed as mafia—Cassidy was the first one to approach him as a ghost, and was in fact the one who got him to acknowledge that ghosts really did exist. Most of all, though, his view of her was changed when he found out she was the granddaughter of the chemist who made the revival potion he'd received from Anna Dywight. Professor Bardsley then came to see her as a useful pawn, forcing her to create a revival potion that would bring him and his fallen comrades back to life. That said, when she and her friend Jonathan escaped with the notes for the potion, he was furious, vowing to one day find her again and get those notes back... Jonathan Mallory Professor Bardsley never had much of an opinion of Jonathan. After Bardsley's death, however, he was perfectly content to use Jonathan as a pawn in his plans, murdering the student without a second thought. Though he is unaware of Jonathan's current whereabouts and assumes he escaped with Cassidy, he does not realize that it was Jonathan who stole the notes for the revival potion. and as such holds no particular grudge against him. Winston Teakes Though Winston considered Professor Bardsley to be his archnemesis with the impossibly stylish hair, Professor Bardsley had little opinion of Winston. He remembers him as a nuisance at best, and barely acknowledges the boy's absence. Liliana Parker It could be said that Professor Bardsley was using Ms. Parker from the very start—he was quick to form a makeshift investigation team with her, but all the while he used the position to his advantage, doing all he could to keep her and the rest of the town from the real evidence. Though he was not aware until later that Liliana had developed romantic feelings for him, he had no problem with crushing those feelings when the truth about him came out. Now he finds her to be a most fascinating specimen, intrigued by how deeply she was affected by the events surrounding her death. Memes Due to his unique characteristics, Professor Bardsley was a memorable character who produced many memes and running gags. Bardsley's hair Early in the game, Leopold Endicott fanboyed Professor Bardsley's hair. It quickly became a running gag that Bardsley had silky, luxurious hair, to the point that Winston Teakes called him out in-game for using hair mods, and started referring to him as "the hair villain." Bardsley's abs ...I don't really remember where this one came from but basically, Bardsley has fantastic abs. Apparently. (Even though he really doesn't.) Ghosts/skepticism Before his mafia reveal, Professor Bardsley was well known for his complete refusal to believe in ghosts, despite the overwhelming evidence of their existence. It quickly became a joke, to the point that several ghosts physically harassed him about it at one point. Just before his death, it was revealed that Bardsley would sooner believe that he was insane than he would believe in ghosts, acting as a major hint to his true nature. Later on, it would be explained that Bardsley genuinely believed that he was insane, and that his denial about the existence of ghosts was due to his refusal to accept the possibility of his own victims coming back and revealing his identity as a sociopathic murderer. It wasn't until he himself became a ghost that he finally came to accept the truth, devoting most of his afterlife to the study of ghosts. By the end of the game, he got over his denial entirely, to the point that his own girlfriend is a ghost. His irrationally skeptical behavior resurfaced in the wake of the Medieval roleplay. Despite Medieval firmly proving that magic and mystical things do exist in their world, Professor Bardsley has been known to dismiss them as myth. Fascinating/interesting Professor Bardsley's mafia motive included impassively observing the chaos happening during the course of the game, regarding it as a particularly fascinating anthropological study. This quickly became one of his defining characteristics, to the point that comments to the effect of "how very... fascinating" became his essential catchphrase. It's to the point that even the word "fascinating/interesting" will often be used in conversation as a reference to Professor Bardsley. Trivia * According to PFA, Professor Bardsley was inspired from a dream. She describes the dream as such: * In PFA's early concepts of him, he was a chemistry teacher instead of an anthropology teacher. * Professor Bardsley is apparently descended from Leland Jade, Joffery Jade's son. He gets it from his mother's side. Category:Mafia III characters Category:Mafiosos Category:Bernians Category:Albioners Category:Player characters